Native Sons

You read some books for entertainment, and you read some books for enlightenment. Native Son definitely falls into the category of the latter. In book three of Native Son there was a twenty-two page speech given by Max, Bigger's lawyer. I found it to be a great speech, while it did take place in a fictional world, it brought up points that were anything but fictional. While the tactics that people used to catch and prosecute Bigger may have been exaggerated, they showed what things perhaps seemed like to Bigger. Calling 60 witnesses to the stand, combing the entire city of Chicago, these were all very grand and all only because Bigger was black. Max gave, in my opinion, a great speech. It raised many points and was not just a speech that was trying to fight for Bigger. He was fighting for civil rights all across America. He brought an almost fresh perspective by not trying to say Bigger was innocent, but instead trying to argue how things could change in the future. If I was on that jury I would have certainly not wanted to give Bigger the death penalty, or at the very least not for the murder of Mary Dalton. Bessie seemed to have been used as more evidence rather than something to charge Bigger with. Bigger certainly wasn't innocent, but Max's speech made me feel sympathy for him. Max seemed to know everything that Bigger was trying to say but couldn't. Max was definitely one of the most likable characters in that book and its a shame that he didn't win the case for Bigger.